Dalai Lama’s Five European Nation Teaching Tour Starts With Teaching In Riga

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Latvia on Sunday and yesterday he commenced his teaching tour of Europe. The Dalai Lama’s five European nation teaching tour stretches between 10th October and 24th October. His Holiness is giving a two-day teaching on Dharmakirti’s Pramanavarttika (tsema namdrel) at the request of Save Tibet Foundation (Moscow) and Saglabasim Tibetu (Riga).

“This morning [Monday], with a chill wind blowing through the streets and parks of the capital Riga, he drove to the Skonto Hall where an audience of 4500 awaited him. Of 3000 or so who had come from Russia, roughly 500 were from Kalmykia, 3-400 from Buryatia and 100 from Tuva. As His Holiness stepped onto the stage, many surged forward to catch a closer glimpse as he greeted them.” reported the official website of the Dalai Lama.

“Here we are once again in Latvia,” His Holiness began, “and I’d like to thank the organizers for creating this opportunity for me to give some explanation of Buddhist teachings.”. His Holiness acknowledged the efforts of the organizers for this program owing to the difficulty with the Russians in traveling to India to attend His Holiness’s teaching due to economic constraints.

On October 14th, His Holiness will give a one-day teaching on Nagarjuna’s The Precious Garland of the Middle Way (uma rinchen trengwa), Kamalashila’s The Middling States of Meditation (gomrim barpa) & Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (laklen sodunma) and will also be offered a long life offering by the Tibetan Community of Switzerland & Liechtenstein. On the afternoon of 16th October, His Holiness will give a public talk on Slovakia about Secular Ethics. His Holiness will give the same talk on the afternoon of 19th October in Prague.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama Arriving in Latvia

Following this His Holiness is scheduled to give two days teaching in Milan, Italy during 21 and 22nd October which is organized by Ghe Pel Ling Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Studies. On the afternoon of 22nd October His Holiness will give a public talk on The Source of Genuine Happiness.